Kushan dynasty, Kushan also spelled Kusana, ruling line descended from the Yuezhi, a people that ruled over most of the northern Indian subcontinent, Afghanistan, and parts of Central Asia during the first three centuries of the Common Era. The Yuezhi conquered Bactria in the 2nd century bce and divided the country into five chiefdoms, one of which was that of the Kushans (Guishuang). A hundred years later the Kushan chief Kujula Kadphises (Qiu Jiuque) secured the political unification of the Yuezhi kingdom under himself.

Photograph by David Jackson. Victoria and Albert Museum, London, IS.4-1971

Under Kaniska I (flourished 1st century ce) and his successors, the Kushan kingdom reached its height. It was acknowledged as one of the four great Eurasian powers of its time (the others being China, Rome, and Parthia). The Kushans were instrumental in spreading Buddhism in Central Asia and China and in developing Mahayana Buddhism and the Gandhara and Mathura schools of art.

The Kushans became affluent through trade, particularly with Rome, as their large issues of gold coins show. These coins, which exhibit the figures of Greek, Roman, Iranian, Hindu, and Buddhist deities and bear inscriptions in adapted Greek letters, are witness to the toleration and to the syncretism in religion and art that prevailed in the Kushan empire. After the rise of the Sāsānian dynasty in Iran and of local powers in northern India, Kushan rule declined.

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ancient people who ruled in Bactria and India from about 128 bce to about 450 ce. The Yuezhi are first mentioned in Chinese sources at the beginning of the 2nd century bce as nomads living in the western part of Gansu province, northwestern China. When Lao Shang (reigned c. 174–161 bce),...

1st century ce greatest king of the Kushan dynasty that ruled over the northern part of the Indian subcontinent, Afghanistan, and possibly areas of Central Asia north of the Kashmir region. He is, however, chiefly remembered as a great patron of Buddhism.

(ad 224–651), ancient Iranian dynasty evolved by Ardashīr I in years of conquest, ad 208–224, and destroyed by the Arabs during the years 637–651. The dynasty was named after Sāsān, an ancestor of Ardashīr I.